NEW Cruise/duvall/quaid/kidman - Days Of Thunder (Blu-ray)

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First of all, the Amazon.com reviewer must not know anything about racing, as this film has nothing to do with the Indy 500, and neither does NASCAR (except for racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the annual Brickyard 400). That said, the movie, though it features lots of unrealistic driving (err, crashing) scenes and less-than-stunning acting, still isn't the worst way to spend a couple hours if you've got the racing bug. As pointed out by other reviewers, Robert Duvall gives a great performance as Tom Cruise's crew chief who comes out of retirement to bring Cole Trickle (Cruise's character) to the top of the NASCAR ranks. Cruise's own performance is sufficient, given the character, as is Randy Quaid's. Nicole Kidman seemed to be trying too hard to be emotionless in this movie. Maybe the writers/directors told her to, I don't know. The racing scenes where the drivers aren't running each other into the wall are decent enough, and the car sounds are pretty good. If you want a great racing movie, try "LeMans" or (when it comes out on DVD) "Grand Prix." I really wish we had a truly great modern racing movie, especially about Formula One or CART/Indy car racing ("Driven" doesn't count--it sucked). Maybe someday...

Man oh man.Where do I start? How about with the script? Now that that's taken care of how about the acting? The acting was absolutely atrocious. I believed that Tom Cruise was a Nascar driver for about a tenth of a nano-second. He sounds nothing like a Nascar driver, he doesn't plug sponsors like crazy, and he sure as hell doesn't look tough and weathered from racing. Nicole Kidman breaks out an unforgettable performance, but this movie did come after "Far and Away" so she had no where to go but up. Robert Duvall is far from the days of Lt. Col. Kilgore and it really saddens me. The man was such a hard ass in "Apocolypse Now" and now he loves the smell of pit fumes while eating Crunch bars while his flamboyant driver makes left turns all day. Who can forget John C. Reilley in this one. This was long before the days of "Boogie Nights" and Reed Rothchild.The plot. Um....let's see. Nope....not here.I'm tired of ranting about this movie. This movie sucked. Tony Scott sucks. Top Gun sucked. Tom Cruise sucks....most of the time (except for Minority Report and Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky). Carey Elwes is just hilarious. He tries to hide the British accent, but he just can't do it.Bottom line: This movie comes near me I'm going to put it into the wall.Later,Harry Houdini

Days of Thunder is an entertaining film boasting a great performance by Robert Duvall and a few exciting, albeit semi-ludicrous, racing scenes. As a whole, though, this film chugs along near empty, lacking any real oomph. Tom Cruise plays reckless upstart Cole Trickle, a race car driver who has decided to make the jump from Outlaw and open wheel racing to stock car racing. Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) is the former car builder and crew chief that used car salesman and new car owner Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) wants to bring on board to work with Trickle. Trickle is as wild on the track as he is off, and all of the talent he definitely has seems wasted as he and Harry are almost completely incapable of communicating with one another. Eventually, there's a breakthrough, and Cole wins a few races. At the Firecracker 400 in Daytona, though, Cole is involved in a major wreck along with his nemesis Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker). It is here that Nicole Kidman enters the picture as Cole's doctor Claire Lewicki. Cole's recovery from the crash involves more than just physical healing, and there's a new, thoroughly sleazy upstart in the circuit whom Cole must now contend with. There's an interesting yet unfulfilled subplot about Rowdy's injury and his way of dealing with it as well as a romantic theme that basically goes nowhere; clearly, the action on the track is what the filmmakers were banking on in terms of the movie's success.NASCAR wasn't as big back in 1990 as it is now, but even then you didn't have to grow up in NASCAR country like I did to see how ridiculous most of the racing action in this film was. Anyone with no knowledge whatsoever of stock car racing would get the impression from Days of Thunder that the whole point of driving is to wreck all the other cars.Read more ›

When a businessman by the name of Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) needs a new driver for the chance to win the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. Tim is recruiting his old partner-Chef Crew and Car Builder Harry Hogge (Oscar-Winner:Robert Duvall) to train, young ambitious race driver Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise)-who has the talent for and his burning need to win for his life on the race. When one race, Cole's has survived for a fiery crash, a young brillant doctor (Nicole Kidman), who saved his life. When Cole actually falls in love with the Doctor. Then he puts all his energy, heart and soul to prove himself that he's a winner.Directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Spy Game) actually made a fun (If at times-slow moving) flick. From a story by Oscar-Winner:Robert Towne and Cruise. Towne wrote the screenplay, which he acutally avoid most the chichés but it's quite flawed because of Cruise's one-note performance. It's the Performances from the Supportive Cast and Action Race Sequences outshines Cruise's Role, which is actually a good thing. Duvall is Solid as Usual and also Micheal Rooker as One of Cruise's race buddies are the stand-outs in this. Cary Elwes, Fred Dalton Thompson and a young John C. Reilly are in small roles in this one. This was a Box-Office Hit in the Summer of 1990. This is not, one of Cruise's Best films but is one of the few Stand-Out films from Scott. Watch for the late:Don Simpson (which he also produced this film in a cameo). Panavision. Grade:B+.